Report: Small schools provide as good an education as large schools

Small schools are as good as big schools when it comes to the quality of education pupils receive, a report shows.

The Department of Education inspectorate’s report found there was “no significant relationship between school size and the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in schools”.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn welcomed the report, which was based on school inspections and surveys of parents and pupils. It shows the quality of English lessons is marginally better in larger schools, while there is little difference between the quality of maths lessons between smaller and larger schools.

Parents of pupils in larger schools have slightly more positive views on the quality of teaching than parents in smaller schools.

However, the inspectorate said that none of these differences were statistically significant.

Mr Quinn said the report was not an attack on small schools, but rather a valuable tool in the debate on such schools.

“I recognise that small schools are an important part of the social fabric of rural communities,” he said.

“And they will continue to be a major feature of our education landscape.

“However, at a time of great strain in our public finances, we have to ensure that the very valuable but limited resources available to the education system are used in the best way possible.”

The report will bolster the case for small schools to be made by primary teachers at this week’s INTO congress and was last night described as “positive” for such schools by an INTO spokesman.

“A generation ago, there was widespread closure of small schools and the impression was created that small schools could not deliver the curriculum. Large numbers of such schools were closed as a result,” said the spokesman.

“This report is now saying very clearly that there’s no significant difference between small and big schools when it comes to teaching the curriculum. Therefore, there’s no educational justification for closing small schools.”

The inspectorate’s report, meanwhile, will form part of the small primary schools value-for-money review, which is being finalised by the department.

INTO president Noreen Flynn urged the Department of Education to publish the review, saying it should be followed by a forum which would also help develop a strategy for sustainable small schools.

Ms Flynn said Budget 2012 had caused fear and anxiety in rural, Gaeltacht, and island communities where many saw the move to increase class sizes in two, three and four-teacher schools as an attack on the existence of those communities.

She said there were similar fears among minority faith groups.

Following the budget, the minister allowed an appeal process for schools affected by the changes. Ms Flynn said this was welcome, but said the matter was far from resolved.

She said the provision of sustainable schools was a complex matter and many issues needed to be considered before embarking on a policy that could see schools close.

Ms Flynn, who is also principal of a DEIS Band 1 school in Dublin’s south inner city, welcomed the reversal of most of the planned cutbacks in DEIS schools. She said the cutbacks were inexplicable and unfathomable.

“I have to acknowledge that the minister, having realised the damage these cuts would inflict on the most vulnerable communities, put up his hands and admitted he had made a mistake. I welcome the minister’s alleviation of the majority of these measures.”